Articles

WHEN I WAS TWELVE YEARS OLD, I decided to apply for church membership. I was so excited about doing something important! After I was accepted as a member, the people in charge (I learned later they were called "the board"), asked me what I would like to do for the church.

IT WAS early spring, but the landscape was still frozen beneath a thick blanket of snow as our bus slowly navigated the many potholes waiting in ambush under slushy puddles on the road ahead. It was difficult to think, much less read, because of the lurching, bumping, and vibrating motion as we inched our way along the winter-ravaged highway.

WE HAVE A NEW NAME! After nearly 100 years of being First Church of Christ, Scientist, we're now the Christian Science Society of Waukesha, Wisconsin. We love that the Church Manual identifies both churches and societies as branches of The Mother Church.

"This was the most important meeting for me in 85 years. " "I've been a Mother Church member for 40 years and I've never been treated with such respect and been taken as a mature Christian Scientist that can be trusted.

THE TEARS WELLED UP IN MY EYES as I slowly pulled my car to the side of the road. I was lost in an unfamiliar city and frustrated over navigating professional responsibilities that were foreign to my convictions.

MY INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE came about this way: My husband and I had both gone to a Sunday School as children, and had been churchgoers as teenagers, but as soon as we became adults we stopped attending church. We preferred to sleep in and then have brunch late Sunday mornings.

In these pages we've gathered several shorter items — articles of less than a page in length and excerpts from longer manuscripts that offer useful, inspiring insights. We hope you enjoy this kind of short-form nourishment in each issue.

THOSE WORDS WERE SPOKEN by a head usher at The Mother Church, after each usher's meeting twice weekly. There were healings at The Mother Church services, of course, but as a new member of the usher staff, I had not seen any, and muttered about it too often.

" AND JESUS WENT ABOUT all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people" ( Matt. 9:35 ).

DURING THE PAST WEEKS, MONTHS, AND YEARS, I've been thinking about Jesus' command, "Get thee hence, Satan" ( Matt. 4:10 ).